Preface

For about 8 centuries Tver has been standing on the banks of the great Russian river Volga. It has gone through prosperity as well as through stormy years. Several times it had been burnt by enemies and was rebuilt again. Lots of historical monuments were ruined by Time. So every one of them is more valuable now than ever. Tver is a beautiful city with impressing architecture, it attracted attention of travellers and artists since long ago. The bright images of the city, sometimes unexpectable, had been imprinted in the pictures of masters of art and drawing since the XVII century. The appearance of photo-graphical art made those images more visible, full and true.

The authors of the book invite a reader to make a slow walk along the ancient city, its streets, squares and roomy embankments. This walk can be done due to more than 100 photos and post cards from the XIX-XX centuries, which were collected from different museums', libraries' and private collections in Tver and St. Petersburg. The works of popular in Russia masters of view genre of photo art from the late XIX century, such as M. P. Nastyukov, M. P. Dmitriev and Tver photographers V. G. Frantov and I. A. Tachalov, whose names are less known to Tverers. The views of the city in the old photos and post cards will call lots of historical, literary and art associations and let them adsorb the atmosphere of Tver of the XIX-XX centuries, while facades of houses will tell many interesting things about tastes and preferences of their builders and owners.

Publishing in the album photos and post cards are a small part of a vast collection of Tver view photography. Many of them are publishing for the first time. The illustrations are followed by reference texts written by scientists of the State Scientific and Restoration Bureau of Projecting «Tverproyektrestavratsiya». The texts are based on careful research of historical archives. The authors are also the compilers of the album. Readers can learn a lot about the city due to the album. To use it as a guide-book plans of the city are published under each illustration.

The album will be interesting to guests of the city of Tver.

Elena Kiryanova